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Official site of the Charlottetown IslandersThu, 23 May 2019 15:27:19 +0000enhourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.5.17Draft History: The 2015 Drafthttp://charlottetownislanders.com/article/draft-history-the-2015-draft
Thu, 23 May 2019 15:27:19 +0000http://charlottetownislanders.com/article/draft-history-the-2015-draftth overall pick in a draft that got deeper at the last minute; the day before the draft, it was ruled that Joseph Veleno was granted Exceptional Status by the CHL, allowing him to enter the draft a year early. The Saint John Sea Dogs, holding the #1 pick, nabbed the under-age sensation to add to a core group inching closer and closer to a championship-level team.
As names like Antoine Morand and Maxime Comtois came off the board at #2 and #3 respectively, the Islanders found themselves getting closer to being on the clock. Charlottetown, however, wouldn’t draft at #5; they’d trade that pick to the Val d’Or Foreurs in exchange for the 13th overall pick and a 2016 1st round pick. The Foreurs would use that pick to select goaltender Dereck Baribeau, while the Islanders would select big power forward Shaun Boudrias of the College Esther-Blondin Phoenix.
Boudrias would spend much of his time with the Islanders as a bottom-six forward developing his defensive game before blossoming in to a top power forward in the league following a trade to the Gatineau Olympiques during the 2016-2017 season. The big forward would then hear his named called again in 2018, this time drafted by the Minnesota Wild in the sixth round of the 2018 NHL Draft.
With no picks in the second round of the draft, Isles GM Grant Sonier and his scouting staff discovered a player they wanted, but who wasn’t guaranteed to be available with the team’s next pick late in the third round. Sonier sent a 2016 2nd round pick, plus the 87th overall pick in this draft, to the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies in exchange for the 37th overall pick. Sonier would get his guy: an undersized goaltender from Halifax, Nova Scotia name Matthew Welsh.
Welsh would make the team as a 16 year-old and the rest is history. Learning under the tutelage of Mason McDonald, Welsh would go on to set records in all major goaltending categories in Islanders/Rocket franchise history, including games played, wins, and shutouts. The best part about it? His junior career isn’t even finished.
The Islanders would select forward Carl Gervais in the third round before yet another franchise-altering pick in the fifth round. Sonier would step up to the podium with the 78th overall pick and select a defender out of Chambly, Quebec. Little did anyone know at that time exactly what the Islanders got in Pierre-Olivier Joseph.
Like Welsh, Joseph would join the Islanders in his 16-year old season and never look back. The 6’3 defender would go on to become the team captain for two seasons and the first-ever first-round NHL draft pick in Islanders franchise history. 200 games played, 110 points as an Islander makes Joseph one of the most important Islanders in team history.
The Islanders would pick next in the sixth round, and once again they’d come away with a hit. Matthew Grouchy was a high-scoring forward from Newfoundland playing for the Canadian International Hockey Academy in Ontario. He scored at a pace similar to that of teammates and future OHLer’s Pavel Gogolev and Semyon Der-Arguchintsev, making him a very interesting pick by Grant Sonier and staff. Grouchy would play a season and a half for Charlottetown before trading him to Quebec as part of the Derek Gentile trade.
The Islanders would select nine more times after Grouchy, with six of those players seeing limited games for the Islanders, including Johnny Foley, who impressively recorded 3 points in 14 games as a 16-year old 11th-round pick during the 2015-2016 season.
The 2015 QMJHL Draft will likely go down as one of the more prominent drafts in the history of the Charlottetown Islanders. Selecting two future faces of the franchise, two NHL draft picks, and five players who would play more than two seasons in the league certainly goes to show what careful planning and thoughtful drafting can do.
Picks:
Round 1 – Pick 13 – RW Shawn Boudrias
Round 2 – Pick 37 – G Matt Welsh
Round 3 – Pick 53 – F Carl Gervais
Round 5 – Pick 78 – D Pierre-Olivier Joseph
Round 6 – Pick 101 – F Matthew Grouchy
Round 7 – Pick 123 – D Dominic Reid
Round 8 – Pick 132 – F Ian Drysdale
Round 8 – Pick 145 – D Andrew Murphy
Round 11 – Pick 182 – D Jack Desroches
Round 11 – Pick 191 – F Johnny Foley
Round 12 – Pick 200 – F Zach Thususka
Round 12 – Pick 209 – F Elio Di Meo
Round 13 – Pick 227 – F Ian Murphy
Round 14 – Pick 245 – D Dennis Cesana
Other notable Islanders:
Round 4 – Pick 70 – Derek Gentile (Quebec)]]>Jordan Maher stays local, commits to UPEI Panthershttp://charlottetownislanders.com/article/jordan-maher-stays-local-commits-to-upei-panthers
Thu, 16 May 2019 10:34:10 +0000http://charlottetownislanders.com/article/jordan-maher-stays-local-commits-to-upei-panthersDraft History: The 2014 Drafthttp://charlottetownislanders.com/article/draft-history-the-2014-draft
Wed, 15 May 2019 19:15:46 +0000http://charlottetownislanders.com/article/draft-history-the-2014-draftth overall pick, along with their own 2016 1st round pick, to Saint John to acquire Oliver Cooper, a hard-nosed veteran winger who broke out for 28 goals the season before.
Cooper would go on to become the captain of the Islanders in 2015-2016, but he wasn’t the only future Islanders captain acquired that day. The Islanders would then trade the 16th overall pick and a 2015 5th round pick to Rimouski for Summerside native Ryan MacKinnon. The quick-moving, overage defender immediately became the leader of a revamped Isles defense corps alongside Dexter Weber, acquired on the same day as MacKinnon, and the soon-to-be acquired Will Thompson.
Before the end of the day, MacKinnon would be joined by another friend from Prince Edward Island. Charlottetown would trade Victoriaville’s 2015 1st round pick back to the Tigres in exchange for towering Johnston’s River native Ross Johnston. The move, combined with the acquisitions of Cooper and MacKinnon, cemented the Maritime identity that Sonier sought from the beginning of the Islanders’ tenure in Charlottetown.
The final move involving 1st rounders for Sonier came on draft day; Sonier flipped Gatineau’s 1st round pick, 12th overall, back to Gatineau to move up to the 7th overall selection. Sonier used the pick to select a sharp-shooting winger from Sydney, Nova Scotia, Mitchell Balmas. Balmas was the player that Sonier coveted, working diligently to select the young player.
"We're getting one of the premier goal scorers in this year's draft," Sonier said in an interview with The Guardian. “We couldn’t have been happier to have selected him.”
Balmas would go on to a prolific five-year QMJHL career across four teams, winning a President’s Cup and Memorial Cup with the Acadie-Bathurst Titan in the process.
The Islanders would select twice in the second round, picking forward Samuel Guibault 24th and big defender Andrew Smith 34th overall. Guibault would make the Islanders out of camp and play the season in Charlottetown before being traded to Shawinigan the following offseason. He’d spend parts of three seasons with the Cataractes before joining Longueuil Collège-Français of the Quebec Junior A league for good in 2018-2019, where he’d record an incredible 114 points in 48 games.
Smith, meanwhile, would play with the Islanders during the 2015-2016 season before two more seasons in Victoriaville, recording four goals and 20 points over a 172-game career in the QMJHL.
Not on the clock again until 48th pick, Charlottetown proceeded to pick a player that would become synonymous with Islander hockey. Keith Getson was ranked 35th overall by QMJHL Central Scouting ahead of the draft but fell a few spots from his predicted draft slot. The Islanders used the opportunity to land the Bridgewater native, and the rest is history. Getson now sits alone atop the list of games played as an Islander before his trade to Halifax this past season.
The Islanders would finish the draft with 15 new selections, including Balmas, Guilbault, Smith, and Getson. The foursome weren’t the only players to see QMJHL action of the draft class; fourth round pick Anthony Wojcik played parts of four seasons with Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, and Moncton before finishing his junior career this season in Quebec Junior A. 11th round pick David Comeau would see action over three seasons as well, starting with the Islanders and ending with the juggernaut that was the 2016-2017 Saint John Sea Dogs.
With 6 out of 15 draft picks playing at least three seasons in the QMJHL, it’s easy to argue that Charlottetown made the most of their picks in the 2014 QMJHL Draft. Alongside the trade acquisitions of Johnston, Cooper, and MacKinnon, this draft proved to be a turning point in the franchise and shaped the team identity for years to come.
Picks:
Round 1, #7: F Mitchell Balmas
Round 2, #24: F Samuel Guilbault
Round 2, #34: D Andrew Smith
Round 3, #48: F Keith Getson
Round 3, #55: G Luke House
Round 4, #63: F Anthony Wojcik
Round 4, #73: D Frank Sullivan
Round 5, #84: D Lucas Sangster
Round 6, #97: F Ryan Brushett
Round 8, #140: F Matthew Jones
Round 10, #169: F Hunter Luhmann
Round 11, #187: D David Comeau
Round 12, #205: F Matthew Dumaresque
Round 13, #223: F Brady Griffin-Hefford
Round 14, #241: Ace Cowans
Other notable Islanders selected in the 2014 QMJHL Draft:
Jordan Maher – Round 1, #7, Acadie-Bathurst
Mark Grametbauer – Round 3, #41, Blainville-Boisbriand
Jake Barter – Round 5, #76, Victoriaville
Olivier Desjardins – Round 6, #96, Val d’Or
Sam King – Round 8, #143, Blainville-Boisbriand
Blade Mann-Dixon – Round 11, #185, Saint John]]>Draft History: The 2013 Drafthttp://charlottetownislanders.com/article/draft-history-the-2013-draft
Mon, 13 May 2019 19:15:15 +0000http://charlottetownislanders.com/article/draft-history-the-2013-draftnd overall.
On Prince Edward Island, the 2013 QMJHL Draft was monumental for reasons beyond the on-ice talent: Following the sale of the PEI Rocket, the draft was the first official event of the Charlottetown Islanders.
The Islanders were coming off of a season where the Rocket finished 7th in the QMJHL and were eliminated by the Val d’Or Foreurs in the first round of the playoffs. Led by top overagers Ben Duffy and Josh Currie, the Rocket left the Islanders with the 13th overall selection in the 1st round of the draft. With Duffy and Currie both graduating from junior hockey, and decisions to be made on a number of 19 year-olds, the Islanders entered the draft in transition both on and off the ice.
The transition began before the draft for Charlottetown, as the team traded 19-year old netminder Maxime Lagace to the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles for Stratford native Zach Beaton, Sebastien Lemieux, and a 7th round draft pick. The move not only aligned with the rebuilding strategy, but also aligned with another initiative by new Islanders general manager Grant Sonier to give the team a distinct Maritime flavour.
The first draft pick In Charlottetown Islanders history would eventually become a cornerstone of the franchise: Daniel Sprong, selected 13th overall, was regarded as an elite puckhandler with great offensive vision heading in to the draft. Picked outside the top-ten, the Islanders were quickly being tagged by the media as selecting the early steal of the draft.
https://twitter.com/WillyPalov/status/343387897375899648
Sprong would go on to build a prolific career in Charlottetown, recording 261 points in 199 QMJHL games, all the while spending time with the Pittsburgh Penguins, the team that drafted him in the 2nd round of the 2015 NHL Draft.
After Sprong, the Islanders weren’t set to select again until the 3rd round. That would change before the end of the 1st round; the Islanders agreed to send Louick Marcotte, the team’s 3rd-leading scorer the year before, and a 7th round pick to Val d’Or in exchange for the last pick of the 1st round, 19th overall. The Isles would use that pick to select Alexandre Goulet, a speedy centreman from Levis, Quebec.
Together, he and Sprong were to form the nucleus of the new-look Islanders. The two would be paired together from the outset, giving Charlottetown major junior fans a pair of young faces to rally behind and take the team to the future.
Goulet would record 72 goals and 128 points over two and a half seasons in Charlottetown. He was eventually traded during his third season to Victoriaville for Samuel Blais. In total, Goulet would finish his four-year QMJHL career with 258 points in 262 games.
From there, the push for Maritime talent began for Charlottetown. In the third round, the Islanders would select another player would become an important piece of the puzzle: Antigonish, Nova Scotia native Bradley Kennedy. Like Sprong and Goulet, Kennedy would also make the Islanders out of his first training camp and make an immediate impact, recording 27 points in his rookie year. The hard-nosed forward endeared himself to the Islanders faithful in his three seasons in Charlottetown, capped off by an impressive 25-goal season in 2015-2016.
Along with Kennedy, the Islanders selected almost exclusively Nova Scotian outside of the first round. Of the team’s 13 draft picks, seven were Bluenosers, while the last pick in the draft, Brett Doiron, was from Prince Edward Island.
Unfortunately for the Islanders, outside of their top three picks, only two players (4th rounder Duncan McKie and 12th rounder Josh Shatford) combined to play ten games in the QMJHL. That’s not to say Charlottetown didn’t reap the benefits of this draft; six additional players selected in the first round eventually played for the Islanders, including future captain Guillaume Brisebois, Alex Dostie, Nicolas Meloche, and Cameron Askew. Furthermore, future fan favourites Blais and Pascal Aquin were selected later in the draft, making the 2013 QMJHL Draft one of the deepest in recent memory.
Interesting Facts:

Charlottetown would acquire defenseman Will Thompson from the Saint John Sea Dogs following his rookie season. A first-round pick of the Sea Dogs in the 2013 Draft, Thompson was eventually traded for another first-round pick in this draft, Nicolas Meloche.

Lukas Cormier is a by-product of the 2013 Draft! After the Islanders acquired David Henley from the Val d’Or Foreurs, he was subsequently traded back to Val d’Or to be closer to his family. As part of the trade, the Foreurs sent their 2018 1st round pick to Charlottetown, which eventually came to be Lukas Cormier!

The top offence in the OUA East won’t be resting on their laurels heading into the fall.

The University of Ottawa Gee-Gees Men’s Hockey team bolstered their dynamic forward corps heading into the 2019/20 season with the addition of Daniel Hardie.

Hardie, a native of Georgetown, ON, joins the Gee-Gees following a three-year QMJHL career with Rimouski, Saint John, and Charlottetown.

“They pursued me really hard, they were the first school to reach out to me,” Hardie explained. “I’ve been following along with the season quite a bit, saw the success the team had.

“It was a no-brainer for me. They have a really good program and I’m excited to join it,” he said, while adding he followed the team closely during the season on Twitter and OUA.tv.

In 2015/16, Hardie played alongside current Gee-Gee Brendan Jacome with the OJHL’s Georgetown Raiders. Hardie notched a 48-point season in only 45 games, then earned a free agent deal with the Rimouski Oceanic after going undrafted in the OHL.

“He’s an extremely skilled player, and an even better guy, so we’re excited to have him here,” Jacome recalled. “He’s a skilled passer, he has very good hands too. He’ll be dangerous around the net and I expect him to create plenty of offence for us.”

In his overage season with the Charlottetown Islanders this past year, Hardie ignited as a goal scorer, registering a team-high and career-high 34 goals during the season, while also adding 44 assists.

“I’m a guy that sees the ice pretty well, I get myself into good scoring areas,” Hardie noted. “I was more of a shooter this year – before I was more of a passer. My coaches have said I have a great shot, so I’m trying to utilize that a bit more.”

In addition to Jacome, there’ll be a second familiar face in the dressing room for Hardie. Fellow incoming recruit Dominic Cormier played alongside Hardie with the Oceanic in 2016/17.

“Obviously I reached out to both of those guys along the process, asking them questions about it,” Hardie said. “I was asking Brendan more about how the regular day is, stuff like that, and Dom, about how the recruiting process was like for him.

Off the ice, Hardie already has his sights set in pursuing his academic career.

“I’m looking to go into something like a sports management, you need to start with the human kinetics at uOttawa,” he said. “I talked to Brendan about what the program is like, he said there’s a couple guys enrolled, so that would help for sure.”

From all of us with the Charlottetown Islanders organization, we wish Daniel the best of luck as he continues his hockey career with the University of Ottawa!]]>Lukas Cormier named to Team Canada U18 World Championship preliminary rosterhttp://charlottetownislanders.com/article/lukas-cormier-named-to-team-canada-u18-world-championship-preliminary-roster
Fri, 05 Apr 2019 20:20:40 +0000http://charlottetownislanders.com/article/lukas-cormier-named-to-team-canada-u18-world-championship-preliminary-rosterWelsh and Cormier continue winning ways at Golden Puck Awardshttp://charlottetownislanders.com/article/welsh-and-cormier-continue-winning-ways-at-golden-puck-awards
Thu, 04 Apr 2019 02:45:33 +0000http://charlottetownislanders.com/article/welsh-and-cormier-continue-winning-ways-at-golden-puck-awardsHunter Drew signs ATO with San Diego Gullshttp://charlottetownislanders.com/article/hunter-drew-signs-ato-with-san-diego-gulls
Wed, 03 Apr 2019 19:42:00 +0000http://charlottetownislanders.com/article/hunter-drew-signs-ato-with-san-diego-gullsWelsh cleans up at 2019 Fan Choice Awardshttp://charlottetownislanders.com/article/welsh-cleans-up-at-2019-fan-choice-awards
Wed, 03 Apr 2019 14:36:45 +0000http://charlottetownislanders.com/article/welsh-cleans-up-at-2019-fan-choice-awardsFULL LIST OF AWARD WINNERS:
MOOSE LIGHT THREE STARS AWARD - Matthew Welsh
BERNADETTE'S FLOWERS HARDEST WORKING PLAYER - Liam Peyton
UPEI SCHOLASTIC PLAYER OF THE YEAR - Matthew Welsh
FAIR ISLE FORD PLAY OF THE YEAR - Kevin Gursoy
MAYOR'S CLASS ACT AWARD - Matthew Welsh
OCEAN 100 ROOKIE OF THE YEAR - Lukas Cormier
EASTLINK FAN FAVOURITE AWARD - Matthew Welsh
ISLAND OXYGEN DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR - Matthew Welsh
MARITIME ELECTRIC VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR - Diane Lidstone
MOORE WELL DRILLING OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR - Daniel Hardie
RED SHORES PLAYER'S PLAYER AWARD - Matthew Welsh
ARSENAULT BROS CONSTRUCTION MOST VALUABLE PLAYER - Matthew Welsh
The Charlottetown Islanders organization would like to thank everyone who came out and showed their support to our team one last time this season. We can't wait to see you next season!]]>Sokolov scores in overtime, Charlottetown’s season comes to an endhttp://charlottetownislanders.com/article/sokolov-scores-in-overtime-charlottetowns-season-comes-to-an-end
Mon, 01 Apr 2019 01:32:17 +0000http://charlottetownislanders.com/article/sokolov-scores-in-overtime-charlottetowns-season-comes-to-an-end